In each match the body's energy in upper and lower body timing are also under pressure of all types the entire duration of the match. Some of it is conscious: such as the shots we are facing up against, strategy, emotions, the wind, the sun, the heat, the court, the onlookers, our equipment. And some of it is unconscious: such as your diet’s internal effects, your digestion such as gluten intolerance, extra weight you carry effecting your speed, the psych jobs you are facing up against, your underlying confidence, your core self beliefs, your latent emotions and desires and conflicts and hidden internal stress! These both react to create the matched energy flow within us at any given millisecond…. Our conscious and subconscious control over our body/engines will determine how we will play at any given time. You must make a conscious choice to turn quickly and decide quickly which shot and type of energy to use. Many pros have sequences set up like boxers, such as two lull, one jam, and two finish. Once you begin to do both automatically without conscious thought on every shot your timing will improve dramatically. Researchers set up An MRI brain scan of women knitting and shown a tv screen, telling them which knots to use. When they used a knot they knew, the scan showed very little brain activity, only in the unconscious zone, a small red dot. When told to use a knot that they did not know, their brains lit up all over, and they fumbled with it until they learned it, when the scans went back down to a small dot again.
Timing is everything in life and tennis. Uncle Tony once heard Jack Nicklaus say, “First learn to hit it far, then learn to keep it in.” , and he taught Nadal to hit the ball hard as a child. He also taught Nadal to be a master body clock jammer. His whole game is designed to jam his opponents, with psych, and extreme spin, both top spin pace and slice and mind games as well... His whole strategy is based on jamming both mind and body.

CONSCIOUS VERSUS THE UNCONSCIOUS
The unconscious often confuses positive with negative thoughts. For example, good hypnotists don’t use negative words, such as: don’t, not, no, never, cannot, do not, etc. because the unconscious mind will often confuse these statements to mean, do, always, can, etc, and they then have the opposite effect intended! Positive thinking is crucial regarding the unconscious mind and how it “listens” to the conscious mind’s decisions. Therefore it is recommended that in your own thoughts, to use only positive statements and visual imagery, such as, “I am going to turn sideways faster.”, or, “I am going to move more quickly with smaller steps.”, or “I am going to feel confident today.”, rather than, “Don’t be sluggish.”, or “Don’t move so slowly!” , “What’s wrong with you?”

Visual positive energy also works, such as seeing yourself accepting the trophy from the tournament director, seeing the score by which you win by, seeing your calm self come back from defeat. The unconscious mind does not hear negatives. Those who cooperate with hypnosis, only hear positives, so that when you say, “You will not be nervous”, the mind hears, “You will be nervous.”
Frustrated public outbursts also are negative, and only tend to help your opponents confidence and harm your own! (McEnroe was a freakish exception unless you count the French open against Lendl where he collapsed on the ground and then lost a two set lead. Even the great Mac was vulnerable to the destructive effects of negative emotion on his body clock/engines’ timing.) Avoid any negative thoughts and actions and use positive ones, like the gloat scream, the fist pump, the “Come on!”, the thoughts like, “I will come back and find his weakness.” Projecting these thoughts across the net to your opponent also works. There is more to a match than we can see or measure. That is why live tennis is so different than tv tennis.
Positive energy will even help you beat a superior opponent, one who thinks he will easily beat you! The best internal body clock energy runs fast and free, like a torrent of water, during the point, when we are in the fluid/fast energy mode. When the point is over, the ideal energy is still flowing! Fluid energy wins matches and protects our internal rhythm and loading our coils. This causes our feet and hands to attack the ball quickly and smoothly and confidently, on all types of shots coming in, without a jammed fear of missing.

kb, your posts are so holistically directed - it's refreshing to see tennis through such a lens, with external factors and our mental state often forcing our potential into a bottleneck. Reminds me of singing, where one must be as relaxed, focused, and postured as possible to breathe and sing most effectively.

And, of course, setting higher standards automatically improves performance with the effort to aspire to those standards. This reminds me of a saying (or more of a principle): "Approach your end goals emotionally, but the process logically."

kb, your posts are so holistically directed - it's refreshing to see tennis through such a lens, with external factors and our mental state often forcing our potential into a bottleneck. Reminds me of singing, where one must be as relaxed, focused, and postured as possible to breathe and sing most effectively.

And, of course, setting higher standards automatically improves performance with the effort to aspire to those standards. This reminds me of a saying (or more of a principle): "Approach your end goals emotionally, but the process logically."

great post!

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Emotionally is the exact way we approach this game. Look at Murray! That's the difference between loss and victory. All his match point up losses are all due to one thing: Emotional poison of his timing. Fed and Joker wipe clean, and Murray curses. What a jerk, to be so talented, and so undeserving of it. Bottleneck is a good description. Everything funnels down into the shot. All the emotional quotient, all the physical quotient, the strategic, it all comes down to 4-5 ms. Those who understand why they miss have a much better chance of not missing!

If anyone else had regularly grabbed at imaginary injuries, and cursed every time they lost a point, abused coaches, lived with his mother, played video games 7 hrs. a day, and generally acted like a spoiled 13 yr. old junior brat, would you still defend him if he weren't scottish? I don't think so. Territorial addiction is why wars are started. Plenty of people have told him to control his emotional outbursts and fake injury BS. Has he heard them? Yes. He does what he wants to do regardless of what is good for him, the sign of an immature ahole.

Unfortunately, athtletic talent does not make us good people, but all the kids think so. He's teaching them it's great to be an emotional mess.

He knows it. And it all comes down to his internal belief: Do I deserve this? Match points lost over and over again are just the beginning of his downfall.

It's the kind of behavior that destroys marriage, friendships, work, reputation, and leads to the gutter. A jerk is a jerk, even if he is great at playing tennis. Wake up Murray and smell the gutter coming for you.

All he has to do is decide: no more jerk, and he would do it. One simple thought: lose the jerk, and win more.

I think Murray has matured quite a bit as a professional recently. not an unimpressive progress considering so few pros can go through such transformations once they achieve their high rankings. I'm curious how far he can keep up the progress but meanwhile I applaud him and his team.

I believe these kinda growths are more meaningful than initial success achieved by many fortunate and spoiled juniors who can't continue to mature and achieve greatness.

It's the kind of behavior that destroys marriage, friendships, work, reputation, and leads to the gutter. A jerk is a jerk, even if he is great at playing tennis. Wake up Murray and smell the gutter coming for you.

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You know Andy do you? I do, and I can assure you that what you have said above is completely baseless. His on court demeanour is nothing like his off court personality.

All I know is what I see. You are uk. No other reason for the Murray fan base, except his great play. His gf supposedly broke off due to the video game habit, and I've seen him yell at Gilbert, "I can't believe I listened to you!", during a match. Gutter behavior can turn around, but no likely.